Category Archives: Local News
Under Water
City of Pickens hit hard by storm
By Ron Barnett
Staff Reporter
rbarnett@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — The past week or so has been a challenging time for the city of Pickens, to say the least.
A massive power outage, two snowstorms and a flood unlike any seen in recent years created havoc and inflicted significant damage, with another wave of rainstorms still coming in this week.
Floodwaters drenched the recreation department’s baseball and football fields, damaged its footbridge across Town Creek and covered much of Jaycee Park with a deep layer of silt and sand.
The city is planning a work day for
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A new life for former Gettys site?
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — The former Gettys Middle School site could be seeing new life as an apartment complex.
First reading of a zoning request for the site at 105 Stewart Drive was on the agenda of Easley City Council’s February meeting Monday night.
The request was to rezone 16.005 acres at the site from R-10 to GR2.
All schools in the city are zoned R-10, city administrator Stephen Steese said.
The rezoning would allow up to around 220 units to be built on site “should they decide to
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National chains coming to Easley shopping center
By Ron Barnett
Staff Reporter
rbarnett@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — Four new national chain stores will be coming to Easley to fill up the Town ‘N Country shopping center, with the demolition of the former JCPenney store and a row of smaller shops between it and the Hobby Lobby store “moving pretty swiftly,” according to an Easley city official.
HomeGoods, Five Below, Ross clothing and Ulta Beauty will be taking up occupancy with the departure of JCPenney, Radio Shack, Hallmark and Groucho’s Deli, Easley building official Tommy Holcombe said.
Matt Phillips, one of the partners in the new ownership group, said construction is expected to
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One recycling center to open on Wednesdays
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
LIBERTY — One of the county’s recycling centers is now open again on Wednesdays.
Last week, county officials announced the Easley recycling center at the county landfill in Liberty will be open from 7:30 a.m.-7:20 p.m. on Wednesdays effective this week.
The center is located at 2053 Old Liberty Highway in Liberty. It was chosen to open on Wednesdays due to its central location. All the other county recycling centers will remain closed on Wednesdays.
During summer 2018, officials decided to close all the centers on Wednesdays as a money-
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Sen. Tim Scott accepting apps for summer 2020 internships
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) has announced he is accepting congressional internship applications for available positions in his Washington D.C., North Charleston, 
Columbia and Greenville offices for the summer of 2020.
The internship program offers undergraduate and graduate students practical experience in constituent services, the legislative process, government policy and press. The internship provides students with the ability to work with and learn from public service professionals. Students will learn invaluable work experience and skills throughout their internship that will help them gain a better understanding of how their government functions.
In Washington, interns have the unique chance to research
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Princeton Review names Clemson among ‘Best Value Colleges,’ offering greatest ROI
CLEMSON — Clemson University has been recognized by The Princeton Review as being one of the nation’s best institutions to offer students the greatest return on educational investment. Out of 656 colleges and universities evaluated for this year’s “Best Value Colleges of 2020” list, only 200 received the designation.
Clemson was also recognized for its career services, ranking first out of 20. The Princeton Review considers more than 40 data points affecting return on investment (ROI) — including academic offerings, affordability and career preparation. Clemson’s top-level programs, faculty-to-student ratio, career services, internship opportunities and alumni network contributed to Clemson’s placement.
“Choosing a university can be a daunting task and Clemson students choose daily to invest in creating an atmosphere of success and engagement that produces such positive and notable outcomes,” said David Kuskowski, Clemson’s director of undergraduate admissions. “The
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Courier Community Calendar 2-12-20
• Baha’is to discuss racism at meeting
In honor of Black History Month, the Baha’is of Pickens County invite the public to a Tuesday community table talk with a topic of “Racism: Just Undo It” to discuss the vision of race unity and how it is
America’s most challenging issue. The group will meet in the upstairs conference room at the Hampton Memorial Library in Easley on Tuesday, Feb. 18, at 11 a.m.
• See Pickens Scout Troop 51 in action
Have you ever seen a rope being made, an egg boiled over an open fire in a paper cup or cakes baked in a cardboard box? Locla Boy Scouts will be displaying camping and hiking equipment, demonstrating fire building, knife and ax usage, cooking without utensils, and leave-no-trace
ALERT **** WEATHER ALERT FROM SDPC **** ALERT
ALERT **** WEATHER ALERT FROM SDPC **** ALERT
We are continuing to monitor weather and driving conditions. At this time, we are ceasing all mid-day travel; we advise high school students who are early dismissal or late arrivals to stay where they are and avoid the roads. Afternoon 3K and 4K classes are cancelled. Given current conditions, we do not consider early dismissal to be a safer option than normal dismissal time. For many of our students, our schools are the most secure storm shelter available. Parents are welcome to sign students out early, but do so at their own risk. Delays on bus routes later today are expected, and we advise extreme caution during the drive home today.
John Eby
School District of Pickens County
Coordinator of Communication
Officials get details on proposed tax
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Pickens County Council members learned more about the capital project sales tax 
process Monday night, including how to take a 1 percent sales tax to the voters.
C.D. Rhodes III of the Columbia-based Pope Flynn law firm gave a presentation on the process during council’s February meeting. Implementing a penny sales tax is one of many options council is considering in order to pave county roads
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Roper: Accurate census count is crucial to county
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — A lot of funding is riding on Pickens County obtaining an accurate census count 
this year.
This year’s census was discussed at county council’s Committee of the Whole meeting Jan. 21.
“The census, and a lot of people don’t realize this, is required by the Constitution,” acting county administrator Ken Roper said. “You have to do it every 10 years.”
The county’s GIS department has provided the census
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